John Records Landecker can look back on a storied career as a radio
broadcaster, entertaining millions of listeners around the U.S. and
Canada for more than 50 years.

In honor of his career, Landecker was inducted into the National
Radio Hall of Fame in 2017, but that wasn't the only "class"
he joined last year — he also became a member of the Laker Class of
2017. He just didn't know it until this month.

Landecker visited the Allendale Campus February 8 to discuss his
life, career and autobiography, Records Truly Is My Middle
Name. What he didn't know was that following his talk, he would
be presented with a diploma by Fred Antczak, dean of the College of
Liberal Arts and Sciences.

In a moment that brought Landecker to tears, he said while wearing a
smile: "I walked in here a college dropout, and I'm walking out a graduate."

Landecker attended Grand Valley from 1965-1967, but because Grand
Valley did not have a broadcasting program or radio station at that
time, he transferred to Michigan State University. During his final
semester at MSU, he received a job offer at a station in Philadelphia,
which he accepted, thus never completing his degree. Landecker stated
in his autobiography that not finishing college was one of his biggest
regrets in life.

Records Truly Is My Middle Name, which is available in Mary
Idema Pew Library, was published in 2013, but Landecker updated the
book in 2017 after his Hall of Fame nomination. During the summer of
2017, Landecker visited Grand Valley to interview nine Grand Valley
students about the future of radio, and those interviews were all
included in an additional new chapter of the updated version of the book.

"I loved working with Grand Valley students," said
Landecker. "I felt they had a passion for broadcasting and would
be a great source for material in my book. Some broadcast
professionals feel the future of radio is dim, so I wanted to find
students who did not feel that way and I wanted to find out why. There
are not a lot of colleges in this country that offer courses on the
level of GVSU."

Len O'Kelly, assistant professor of multimedia journalism and a
former colleague of Landecker's, examined his transcripts to discover
Landecker was only a handful of credits shy of earning a bachelor's
degree based on the credits he accrued from Grand Valley, MSU and
Columbia College in Chicago.

"I've heard the story often — 'I was one class away and never
finished.' Usually, that's not the case, but this was one where it
was," said O'Kelly. "John had gone his whole life thinking
that he had missed out on completing his degree. I knew I had to find
a way to invite John back home to Grand Valley to finish it."

O'Kelly made Grand Valley administrators aware of Landecker's
interviews with Grand Valley students, which qualified as independent
research credits for the fall 2017 semester. Those credits fulfilled
his degree requirements.

"I told Len that I didn't want an honorary diploma; I didn't
want to do it online," recalled Landecker. "If I needed to,
I would attend class, but that was it until today."

Landecker said that O'Kelly kept the secret diploma well-hidden until
pieces of his transcripts appeared in the PowerPoint presentation that
accompanied the duo's Q&A session during the February 8 event.

"I asked him about the transcripts before the session began and,
with a total straight face, he said that it would take more time and
he would let me know," said Landecker. "When my transcripts
suddenly appeared on the screen, I could not figure out where he was
going, but Len is the reason this happened."

Landecker was born and raised in Ann Arbor, which is where his radio
career began. While a Grand Valley student, Landecker worked at the
Top 40 radio station WERX in Wyoming, and would go on to work at
various stations in Michigan, Philadelphia, Chicago, Cleveland and
Toronto over the course of his career.

He was named Billboard Magazine's "Radio Personality of
the Year" in the 1970s while working at WLS in Chicago, and in
the 1990s, his morning show at WJMK, also based in Chicago, was named
the best morning show in the city.

Landecker said he plans to walk across the commencement stage in April.

"There really are no words that I can use to express the
gratitude that I have for Len and the university," said
Landecker. "My father was a college professor and I was the only
one in my family who didn't graduate from college. This goes beyond
being inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame and I've never
felt anything close to what I felt today."